Abaca chipper machine

ABSTRACT

The machine accepts cut lengths of fibrous plant stem, and slices and cuts them into chips, and then crushes and squeezes them to partially defibered and de-watered condition. In the crushing and squeezing, the chips are fed by a pair of conveying endless chains to a squeeze-pass between circumferentially and chevron grooved rollers.

United States Patent 1 1 Gomez 1 1 Jan. 9, 1973 s41 ABACA CHIPPER MACHINE 2,480,067 8/1949 White et ai' ..l9/6

[76] Inventor: Francisco M. Gomez, Rm 401 v l Vicente Madrigal, Ayala Avenue, u 9 Newton Rizal, phmppinesj Attorney-James H. Littlepage 22] Filed: May 17,1971

' [57.] ABSTRACT [211 App]. No.: 143,962

- The machine accepts cut lengths of fibrous plant stem, 52 US. Cl. ..19/s R and slices n cuts h m into h ps. and then crushes [51] Int. Cl. ..D01b 1/00 and squeezes them to partially defibered and de- [58] Field of Search ..19/ R, SA, 6, 7, l0, l2, watered condition. In the crushing and squeezing, the 19/23, 24, chips are fed by a pair of conveying endless chains to a squeeze pass between circumferentially and chevron [56] I References Cited grooved rollers.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures 1,021,269 3/l9l2 Schlichterl .i.....l9/5 A 40- 66 1 0' I w ,r 5 0g 12 1- l e 56 Y I w "l |5 /'u ),o L l W68 IIM -J'i PATENTEDJAH 9 I973 SHEET 1 [1F 2 PATENTEUJAH 9 1975 SHEET 2 OF 2 FIGS ABACA CHIPPER MACHINE FIELD OF INVENTION Solid material comminution or disintegration, rotary surface or surfaces-cooperating non-smooth surface characteristic.

PRIOR ART Gomez Philippine Patent ABACA CHIPPER MACHINE No. 2812 of Feb. 9, 1967, for a machine utilizing groovele'ss rollers for crushing abaca chips, and wherein the chips are propelled to the roller by a rotary cutter; and Klugh US. Pat. No. 1,993,102 disclosing a pair of rollers, one with circumferential grooves and the other with axial grooves.

OBJECTS The object of this invention is to have a machine that will slice, cut to chips, crush, squeeze and partially defiber in the field the stem of any monocotyledonous plant whose fibers occur throughout the leaves and/or leafsheaths belonging to the Musa, Agaves and Ananas genus, thus producing a semi-dry state raw material called crushed and partially defibered abaca chips for the production of Gomez Fiber for pulp and paper manufacture, or for the production of newsprint and furfural, and a residual material composed of parenchymateous cells and other non-fibrous materials for stock feed or fuel for steam generation. The monocotyledonous plant used is the abaca Musa textilis, hence the product is called abaca chips which are partially defibered.

The primary object of this invention is to remove in the field most of the water content of the stem in order to facilitate the handling and reduce to the minimum the transportation cost of the raw material from the field to the mill. The secondary objective is to partially separate the non-fibrous from the fibrous materials in the field so that in the initial processing the non-fibrous materials are washed out and in the cooking very little of the non-fibrous materials are left, and therefore, more capacity .is being handled by the cooking digester and less cooking time and pressure is necessary.

It is a common practice abroad to use the abaca fiber and also the old cordage ropes and cordage wastes, though in limited quantity because of the high cost of abaca fiber, as raw material for the manufacture of abaca pulp for production of high quality paper of great strength. Even in the Philippines, abaca fiber for use in the manufacture of abaca pulp has not been available because of the high cost of the fiber due to the wasteful method of extracting this kind of fiber from the plant and the unavailability of sufficient old cordage ropes and cordage wastes locally. Heretofore, attempts had been made to utilize abaca plantation and stripping wastes for abaca pulp and paper manufacture, but it has been found unsatisfactory for commercial scale production for the reason that it is quite difficult and highly expensive to gather the same. Furthermore this kind of raw material is very expensive to process as it requires more chemicals and the yield is considerably reduced. Moreover, the paper produced was found below the US. standard specification.

The abaca chipping machine herein described is designed principally for the pulp and paper ipdustry. It

map be portable or stationary depending upon the conditions of the terrain in the plantation. It is estimated to weight from 5 to 10 tons dependingon the model. It is mounted on a chassis provided with wheels with pneumatic tires or crawler types to facilitate movement from field to field. The engine, besides its use for the operation of the machine, can be utilized to propel the same for larger units. Tractor engine or any suitable power can be used as a primemover for smaller units.

The abaca plant after having been cut from the base and further cut to sufficient lengths and segments is fed to the machine. The same is then sliced, cut to chips, crushed, squeezed, to remove most of the water content and partially defibered rendering said raw material into a semi-dry state.

To illustrate the utility, practicability and advantages of this invention, the following facts are cited. A hectare of abaca plantation for pulp and paper manufacture is planted at a distance of 2% meters between the rows and 2 meters within the row, or a total of 2,000 hills per hectare. If eachhill produces 15 stems within the maturity period of 16 to 18 months, there will be a total of 30,000 stems in a hectare, and if each stem weighs and average of 20 kilos, then the total weight, not including the leaves, would be 600 tons of bulk per hectare. Since percent more or less of said bulk is water, or 540 tons in weight, which is not needed and should be left in the field andnot transported to the fiber processing plant and to do so would entail a tremendous unnecessary expense and labor, not considering the capital investment involved in the form of transportation equipment. However, when the abaca stem is passed through this machine the bulk is reduced to only one-tenth of the original volume which is the only raw material that will be processed in the processing plant. The crushed abaca chips of about 3 inches in length in semi-dry state and defibered are compact and easy to handle, thus facilitating and reducing the transportation cost of the same to the processing plant. Moreover, the defibered crushed abaca chips are much easier to process in the fiber separation plant.

From the foregoing we can clearly see the distinguishing features'of the invention and its utility, novelty and advantages making it essential and necessary in the low cost production of fiber as raw material for pulp and paper manufacture and for the utilization of the non-fibrous residual material for stock feed or fuel for steam generation. This invention is new, practical and useful particularly in the abaca industry when the crushed and partially defibered chips are subjected to a fiber separation process for further separation and the fibrous material is utilized for pulp and paper manufac ture, and the residual materials for stock feed or when the crushed and partially defibered chips may be used as raw material for the production of newsprint or furfural.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side view of the improved machine showing the important elements and its drive connection; 7

FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view of the feeding mechanism showing the chipper and the two-roll precrusher; and,

FIG. 3 is a front view of the two-roll pre-crusher.

Referring first to FIG. 1 of the drawings, in which like reference numerals denote similar elements, it should be understood that after the abaca stems have been pulled and the leaves removed, they are cut into segments of 3 to 5 feet in length and conveyed by a field stalk conveyor to a site where the machine 2 is stationed. The machine 2 is supported on a chassis 4 provided with pneumatic rubber-tired wheels 6 and preferably endless treads 8. The machine is powered by an engine 10, which may be used to propel the entire rig along the grounds, and which drives all the components on the machine through a transmission indicated generally at 12, it being understood that various belts, chains and drive shafts run from the transmission to the components. Some of these are shown, but they will not be further described since they are all well known in the art.

Cut lengths of abaca stems are deposited onto an infeed platform 14 from which they are raised by an elevating conveyor 16 to a chute 18, down which they slide to the various cutters, chippers and crushers. In all of this processing, it will be understood that the material is confined within a casing, denoted generally at 19.

In moving down chute 18, the cut stems are first sawed into lengths of no more than 3 inches by a row of circular saw blades 20 affixed on a drive shaft 22 at 3 inches intervals. Between the saw blades are wedgeshape scrapers 29 and rakes 26 which prevent clogging of the saw blades and which assist in the dropping of the sliced stems down the chute 18 a rotary cutter 28, which consists of a plurality of knives 30a supported by arms 30 on a horizontal shaft 31 which is driven clockwise, as indicated by the curve-shaft arrow. Since the trunk of the abaca plant consists of overlapping broad leaf stems, the sliced stems are cut, chipped and separated from their original overlapping positions, and a chip-like raw material is produced. This invention is concerned primarily with the apparatus by which the chips are crushed and squeezed so as to leave them in a semi-dry crushed and partially defibered state.

Crushing, dewatering and partial defibering is started by a pair of endless infeed chains 32, 34, each running over a series of sprockets 36 and converging to form a squeeze pass 38 at the ends of their runs. These chains compress the cut and chopped stalk lengths to the nip 39 between two rollers 40, 42 (FIGS. 2 and 3). After being squeezed and partly crushed between rollers 40, 42 the stock feeds on through chute 44 to between a three-roller mill 46 and thence via a chute 50 to between another three roller mill 52 driven by chain 54, and finally to an output conveyor 56 which maybe swung upwardly or downwardly by a hydraulic piston and cylinder motor 58.

As seen best, the rollers 40, 42 (as are the other roller pairs) are grooved. Both rollers have relatively deep circumferential grooves 60, both have relatively shallow axial grooves 62, and roller 40 has chevron grooves 64, i.e., grooves which form acute angles with the axial grooves. The circumferential grooves provide channels for water squeezed out of the stalk lengths, and the axial and chevron grooves provide traction, and also some deformations of the fiber bundles.

Tightening screw devices 66 for the bottom roller pairs of the three-roller mills are provided, and a gutter 68, arranged to collect the water squeezed from the chips, is connected to a suitable conduit for conducting the water away from the machine.

I claim:

1. A machine for cutting, chipping, crushing, dewatering' and defibering fibrous vegetable material, such as abaca stalks, comprising a chassis,

means providing a material receiving station at one end of said chassis,

an inclined chute on said chassis, said chute having an upper end disposed generally above the receiving station, an elevating conveyor for lifting material from the receiving station to the upper end of the inclined, cutter means adjacent the upper-end of the chute for cutting the material into lengths of predetermined maximum dimensions, chipper means disposed in said chute below the cutter means for chipping the cut lengths of material and threshing the same,

a series of opposed compression roller means disposed across said chute below said chipper means,

an opposed pair of feed chain means disposed between said chipper means and the first of said pair of said compression roller means in said series, said feed chains having runs which converge in the direction from said chipper means towards said compression roller means and which define a squeeze pass adjacent the nip between said compression rollers,

an output conveyor arranged to receive materials from the last of the compression roller means for discharging materials from the machine, and means for swinging said output conveyor upwardly and downwardly,

and means for driving said conveyors, cutter,

chipper, feed chain and compression roller means.

2. The combination claimed in claim 1, said compression idler means having circumferential and axial grooves therein, one of said compression idler means having, in addition to said circumferential and axial grooves, grooves which run at acute angles to said axial grooves and form a chevron pattern therewith. 

1. A machine for cutting, chipping, crushing, de-watering and defibering fibrous vegetable material, such as abaca stalks, comprising a chassis, means providing a material receiving station at one end of said chassis, an inclined chute on said chassis, said chute having an upper end disposed generally above the receiving station, an elevating conveyor for lifting material from the receiving station to the upper end of the inclined, cutter means adjacent the upper end of the chute for cutting the material into lengths of predetermined maximum dimensions, chipper means disposed in said chute below the cutter means for chipping the cut lengths of material and threshing the same, a series of opposed compression roller means disposed across said chute below said chipper means, an opposed pair of feed chain means disposed between said chipper means and the first of said pair of said compression roller means in said series, said feed chains having runs which converge in the direction from said chipper means towards said compression roller means and which define a squeeze pass adjacent the nip between said compression rollers, an output conveyor arranged tO receive materials from the last of the compression roller means for discharging materials from the machine, and means for swinging said output conveyor upwardly and downwardly, and means for driving said conveyors, cutter, chipper, feed chain and compression roller means.
 2. The combination claimed in claim 1, said compression idler means having circumferential and axial grooves therein, one of said compression idler means having, in addition to said circumferential and axial grooves, grooves which run at acute angles to said axial grooves and form a chevron pattern therewith. 